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  Tahiti Cruise  -  Moorea

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Mooreaisland    Moorea means "yellow lizard" or also "offshoot" 

Quotes (Diane and Buil's experiences below others):

All these from DianneC "Masked Traveler":

Bernard, Captain of the MANU- a catamaran out of the Parkroyal. Will take a minimum of 4 (or cash equivalent), maximum of 12. Phone 56-28-04 or hotel # 55-19-03. I really have to rave about this since I did the same excursion with someone else last time. Cost the same, but no comparison!

Bernard really knows his waters. We went out for @ 3hours. Played with the stingrays (this was the best of BoraBora, Raiatea, Moorea) in @ 4 feet of water. They know his scent and they come sailing in for petting even after they are through being hungry. 

Then we went snorkeling in deep water (no worries about getting scratched on the coral) while he fed the masses of fish. Got our tours of Cook & Opunohu Bays with short geology, history, mythology lessons.

Since a taxi ride is @$25 each way and a car is @$70 for 8 hours, we chose to get a car. It's an easy island to drive, but allow 40 minutes to get back to the ship no matter what folks say. 

Also at the Parkroyal is the Dolphin Quest. Repeating this experience (shallow water this time) was the reason we went back. We thought the shallow water experience was better than the deep water.) 

DianneC


------------------------------------

...a tender port, meaning you will have to take a tender...They run pretty regularly. (ed. boat from ship to shore)

...a number of native booths set up on the pier, but there was a woman with pareos and other hand made and hand-painted clothing items that were beautiful.  Most of the pareos (sarong type cloth) you find are made in Indonesia, and are the same at all the markets, but hers were different, and beautiful! 

My favorite island was Moorea... We rented a car...(it rained one whole day) to explore on the second day.

The only tour we did from the R4 was the Motu Island snorkeling/lunch adventure in Moorea (which was quite nice).  Snorkeling was ok there. There is a "Sofitel" Hotel near where the tenders from the ship take you to, which has a great beach - a cheap cab ride.

When you leave Tahiti for Moorea the ship will sail all night...couldn't figure...only 12 miles away...just sails back and forth between the two islands!

If...beach/snorkeling, you can go to one of the big hotels and use theirs (and their bathrooms, kayak rentals, restaurants, etc.)...Club Med, the Beachcomber Parkroyal,...the Sofitel. I believe Club Med charges you $58 for lunch, but you can use all their facilities except scuba stuff for free all day (if it's like the one on Bora Bora)...need to...take a taxi (they generally look like 4x4s or vans) or rent a car. I would advise against the car rental here unless you want to tour the island. It's about $60 for four hours...taxi for $15 to the Sofitel...share the cost (they can hold 6)...$25 to the Club Med or the Beachcomber Parkroyal. (Always ask the price before you get in the taxi.)

Sofitel is very nice...bungalows over the water. We had lunch here (two lunches (split between three of us), one beer, one drink, and one ice cream) for about $50 total...The beach is nice and has chaises lounge you can use (bring your towel from the ship)...a fresh-water outside shower so you can rinse off. Kayaks..$6 an hour...can rent an outrigger...(but it's hard to steer!)...snorkeling...pretty nice...lots...brightly colored fish...seemed to expect food and would swarm around you...to leave you can either go to the reception area (where you were dropped off) and get...taxi...Our taxi driver told us he'd come back to get us at a certain time.

...ship crisscrossed, did rectangles, squares and circles all night around Moorea [this must have something to do with docking fees] and the next day dawned gorgeously...previous time we’d been  to Moorea (in 1989) it rained for 6 days straight, day and night!

...took the Circle Island and Tiki Village Theater tour, which was very nice, but not enough photo stops on the tour part. The Tiki Village was wonderful, the individual guides showing the craft “shacks” where they lived and worked (painting, making jewelry, tattooing, sculpting), and then we sat down for the marvelous dance show in the amphitheater. Fabulous dancing (followed by the passengers...being invited into the dance...also fire jugglers, a warrior on a Marquesan horse (they’re so beautiful!), a coconut tree climber etc. etc. On the way out back to the bus I bought some necklaces, but as it turned out they were less expensive on other islands. 

...took the Dolphin Watch excursion, which turned out to be fabulous. They played and swam within just a couple of feet of Dr. Michael Poole’s boat (a young Scripps Oceanographer), jumped, twirled (these are the small “spinner” dolphins). Definitely a great experience, even the boat ride outside the reef was wonderful (Dr.Poole's Dolphin Watch e-mail is criobe@mail.pf ). (Ed. others are apparently attempting to imitate Dr. Poole and also note, Dolphin Quest at www.dolphinquest.org, captured dolphins, is not the same as Dolphin Watch)

---------------------------------------------

DIANE and BUIL's EXPERIENCES:

We were scheduled to anchor at 7am.  The R4 anchored in Opunohu Bay instead of Cook's Bay the first day due to problems (with the currents?) in Cook's Bay.  We took tenders.  The first tender was scheduled to leave the R4 at 7:45am.  For this first day, the last tender from the pier back to the ship was scheduled for 5pm.

We had signed up for the ship's "Moorea Snorkel and Ray Feeding" tour, which we had almost fully paid with the kind referral of someone which they purchased their cruise ($100).  Though the description "An outrigger canoe takes you..." turned out to be a covered pontoon style boat . We would have preferred the ship's "Dolphin Watching Expedition", but we found no description of snorkeling.  We took tenders to the waiting boats ashore, then passed by the Moorea Beachcomber Parkroyal luxury hotel to get to the ray feeding area.  We stayed and played with the rays for approximately a couple of hours before leaving to snorkel for about an hour or less between two motu's.  Before we left for the two motu's, the "Dolphin Watching Expedition" group showed up at the Ray feeding site for approx 45 minutes, apparently part of the schedule the ship didn't mention.   Some of the "Dolphin Watching Expedition" group had guessed they might need swimsuits, so they swam with the  rays while the other watched and fumed about not being told.  We enjoyed the Ray feeding, but felt the 45 minutes the "Dolphin Watching Expedition" stayed would have been just right for us.  Also, we felt the strong currents between the two motu's made that part of our snorkeling a bit less enjoyable as we strained to avoid being swept into the coral, though it was good exercise.  Some who took our tour also took the Motu Beach Picnic the next day which turned out to snorkel between the same two motu's.  Renaissance might work a bit harder to describe the tours as some were upset about this.  Anyway, we had fun.

The second day, the first tender was scheduled to leave the R4 at 7:45am.  For this second day, the last tender from the pier back to the ship was scheduled for 5pm. Same schedule as first day.

The next day, the R4 anchored in Cook's Bay and we tendered in and rented a Fiat car with no air from ALBERT Rent-a-Car at the tender's dock for 6500 CFP (8 hours) and we stopped at the first gas station (a few blocks) and put in 850 CFP worth.  Though a Sunday and much was closed, we circled  the island and had a wonderful time.  Moorea may be our favorite island.  For a while, we followed a 4x4 tour and stopped when they did, saw pineapple plantations, then passed them and went on to the Jus de Fruits de Moorea supposed fruit-juice factory on the bottom west side of Cook's Bay.  Didn't see much fruit juice, mostly rums, brandies, liquors, though a 10% alcohol Fruit Drink was in a juice carton (and 12 oz. cans).  We were poured sample tastes of each of a number of rums, brandies, liquors and the 10% alcohol Fruit Drink (several varieties) which was generally slightly more than a jigger of each (she was generous).  When we began to realize the impact, we slowed down and just had one sample for the both of us to taste the remaining ones.  We stopped at the Moorea Beachcomber Parkroyal hotel and walked the grounds.  Remarkably beautiful hotel, very lush and manicured, easily the best hotel on the island (maybe in all of the Society Islands).  As we walked across one of the bridges, we were treated to a free Dolphin show of about ten minutes. It was great, though we felt sorry for the Dolphins.  Apparently they had escaped at some point and were recaptured.  We stopped a number of times, took photos, at "Le Motu" cafe split a French bread sandwich and a Hinano beer (both great), bought pareus, and swam at the Public Beach (just so-so), after walking thru the Sofitel Ia Ora hotel.   Circling Moorea was one of our best experiences. 


travel.epinions.com/trvl-review-6651-114DD125-39573D23-prod5  Moorea: Gorgeous Tropical Paradise


Hotel Bali Hai Moorea 

Luxury Hotels:

Sofitel Ora 

Beachcomber Parkroyal 

Club Med

 

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